Ron Paul to Congress: If Debt Is the Problem, Why Do You Want More of It?

Transcript

Ron Paul: Mr. Speaker, the Congress is concerned about the debt, the people are concerned about the debt, the markets are concerned about the debt, the world is concerned about the debt and what we’re doing here today, because we live with a world fiat dollar standard and so the whole world is engulfed in this very serious problem.

I do not understand, though, that if the debt is the problem – and I agree, the debt is the problem – that for us to come here and raise the debt by 2.4 trillion dollars is the solution. That just baffles me. I think it’s a distraction, because when a country gets indebted to the degree that we’re indebted, the country always defaults. This is historic, especially if the country is a significant country. On occasion, a small country will quit sending the checks and they’ll go bankrupt; we’re not going to do that, but we will default because the debt is unsustainable.

This year it is said that we have a debt increase of 1.6 trillion dollars, but that’s not true. If you count what we borrow from the pension funds, the Social Security and highway funds, it’s 2 trillion dollars. But if you include the increase in the entitlement obligation, it’s 5 trillion dollars. So this is a huge, huge problem.

But the argument here is, how do you default. And it is said that if we don’t raise the debt limit, we’re going to default and not send out the checks. I don’t believe that for a minute, somehow or another the checks are going to go out.

But if you really wanted to live within the technicalities of law, there’s a very simple thing you could do. We owe the Federal Reserve 1.6 trillion dollars. Well, that’s not a real debt – they bought those treasury bills with money out of thin air. We could just write that off or quit paying the interest, tide ourselves over and get down to serious business to cut back and live within our means. And that would be a solution. But to increase the national debt will only encourage another type of default, and that’s what we’re going through. We’re engaged in the most difficult and a very bad way of defaulting; and that is through the destruction of the currency. Today we have an inflation rate of 9%, and that is defaulting. So if a government can default and print money, and if they can get a 50% inflation rate over a period of time, they’ve cut that debt in half. That is the goal, that is what’s happening, and that is very, very serious.

Just in these last 3 years in dealing with this crisis, the dollar has been devalued 50% against gold, and gold, of course, is the best measurement of the value of a currency and it’s been that way for thousands of years and it cannot be denied because it’s economic law. So we are defaulting, and when the American people go out and start buying goods and services, like they are now, they’re recognizing it costs a lot of money. So right now, we’re in the early stages of rampant inflation, which means we’re going to be hit with higher prices and higher interest rates. That is going to be a tax. So I see the only solution, and that is to cut spending.

Now the reason we don’t cut spending is one side loves entitlements, and the other side loves war. And even this token attempt of a 100 billion dollars of cuts when we have this huge, huge deficit… But there’s no mention of cutting military spending. I don’t want to cut defense spending. This military spending doesn’t defend us, it makes things worse.

Our problem in this country doesn’t come only from the Congress, it comes from the people! The people still have a strong appetite for big government programs. They’re not willing to cut, they think government can take care of us from cradle to grave, and that we can be the policeman of the world. So someday, we as a country, we as a people, and we as a Congress, will have to say, “What should the role of government be?” The founders had a pretty strong suggestion, they wrote a constitution that said the government should be very limited, and the government should be protecting our liberties and providing national defense and a sound currency. We don’t do any of that. We’ve embarked on a course that was destined to end badly and this is where we are today.

So if we don’t understand this, this default will not be because we don’t send out the checks – we will send out the checks – it will be defaulted on because people will get their money back, or they will get their Social Security checks, and it won’t buy anything.

That is much, much worse than facing the fact that we not raise the debt limit and work our way out of this. That is devastating economically, and it’s devastating politically, because if we just saw a taste of what happens, how the anger is built when you see other countries in Europe now defaulting and can’t pay their bills. So this is more significant than ever, because we provide the reserve currency of the world.

As a proud republican I say to Obama-“I dare you to let America default”. The only way for American’s to know how much damage the liberal agenda has done is to crash the ecomomy. There will be no hiding then.

WE THE PEOPLE

The “liberal” agenda had zilch,nada, to do with The Second Republican Great Depression.
The GOP owns that lock,stock,and proverbial barrel! No disputing that fact on any level!
Repealing Glass-Steagall was retarded unless you are a corporate whore for Wall Street. Ever hear of “Banker” Phil Gramm or his wife that worked for Enron after making sure energy companies were de-regulated? You need to educate yourself.
What about the deficit? Clinton left a surplus that Dubya and the GOP pissed away in record time! Fact!
What about the unemployment and invasions that are all dubious parts of the legacy for the worst president in U.S. history? You do remember that he is a REPUBLICAN!?
It’s never a good idea to write “proud” and “Republican” in the same sentence in current times.

Athruebelief

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO AMERICA’S SUCCESS!

DRMusicRoom

Inflation and deflation is bullshit. Prices are not driven by supply or demand, but only greed. An apple is an apple, and if you charge one dollar for it then an apple is a dollar whether you have one or a million.
Illumianti can’t kill us through wars or viruses, best bet is to get us all hating each other while they hide in their bunkers so we can blame our killing each other on some stupid cosmic event. Stupid cosmic event, perfect for economic failure – hide in bunkers, we kill ourselves!

Athruebelief

Who cuts EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND DEVOLPMENT,AND OTHER PROGRAMS VITAL TO THE ECONOMY = GOP. How does cutting education give us the competitive advantage to grow our economy so our children can even get a good job (without foreigners taking them–thanks US Chamber of Commerce) to pay any debts?

This man’s intelligence, and compassion for the people of this country, is a threat to the scheming agenda of the general assembly of the Unites States government, and the interests of the large corporations, and executives, who use the average middle and lower class citizen’s work efforts to facilitate the growth of their bank accounts. This is why I’m beginning to like Ron Paul, but be aware as the media will incorporate fear, and distortion, in any way possible to defeat him.

9:14 am: "ooo wow nice attempt at a ad hom! Did the reds steal the election from you? Where is McCarthy when you need him? Am I right?" - JBrown

Email Updates

Embrace liberty & stay in the loop

Sign up to receive free email updates from the RonPaul.com grassroots with the latest news, videos and liberty action alerts.

Disclaimer

RonPaul.com is maintained by independent grassroots supporters of Ron Paul. Neither this website nor the articles, posts, videos or photos appearing on it are paid for, approved, endorsed or reviewed by Ron Paul or his staff. For Ron Paul's official websites, visit the RonPaulLibertyReport.com and the Ron Paul Institute.